Game Review

Zeke’s 2013 Year in Review – Gaming

2013 had a ton of amazing games that came out. Whether you are a fan of consoles, PCs, or a quick cellphone experience, there was something for everyone!

2013 Console/PC Game of the Year – Bioshock Infinite

It was a close tie between Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us, but given that you can play Bioshock Infinite on just about anything you can put in your hands, it got the nod. A great story, amazing characters, and fresh graphics gave this an edge on just about everything else on the market. Bioshock Infinite also took a drastic turn away from the settings found in prior Bioshock installments, and to me it was a breath of fresh air. To top if all off, Elizabeth is absolutely adorable, and she gave a fresh new twist on the escort genre, reminding me a lot of Alex Vance from Half Life 2 Episode 2. If you haven’t had a chance, definitely pick up this amazing title.

2013 Mobile Game of the Year – Flow

Flow is a simple puzzle game, where you connect different colored dots to each other, but with 2 caveats: you can’t cross the streams, and you have to use every single space given to you. It sounds simple, but it’s much more difficult than you’d expect. I’ve killed hours on this game, and they are always releasing more and more content and levels, including the interesting Bridges mode. Definitely give this game a try!

2013 Handheld of the Year – Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

For most of the year, I was sure that Pokemon X & Y would win this one, but once I got A Link Between Worlds in my hands, I was hooked. This game gripping from start to finish. It gave a great new twist on the typical Zelda franchise items system, and the dungeons and bosses were nostalgic yet fresh. This has leapfrogged over A Link to the Past as my favorite game in long and storied Zelda franchise, and it’s definitely worth picking up.

That wraps up Gaming! I hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane into the year 2013!

Zeke’s Top 5 – Smash Bros Characters!

At E3 last week, we were greeted with the news of a brand new Smash Bros. game coming out for both the WiiU and the 3DS in 2014. Gamers all over the world are excited for this latest edition of the Nintendo character fighting game. Us here at aniRAGE have fond memories of huddling around the 64, then GameCube, and finally the Wii in order to yell, scream, and hate one another as we played through stage after stage. So to celebrate the occasion, I decided to take a walk down memory lane and recall some of my favorite characters to play as through the years!

Honorable Mention: Kirby!

In the N64 version of the game, my by-fav favorite character to play as was Kirby. He was quick, powerful, and had some devastating smash attacks. Combine that with his ability to fly back from certain doom, and Kirby was a package that spelled disaster for my opponents. Sadly, the Kirby that I knew and loved just hasn’t been the same since Melee came out. He became a lighter character, and thus was more likely to be knocked out of the arena easier than in the N64 version. My days as a suicidal Kirby bomber were numbered, and I just couldn’t find a playstyle with the Puff Cloud to make him a regular character anymore. But I will always remember my first, and favorite, Smash Bros.

Number 5: Captain Falcon

A mainstay since the first game, Captain Falcon was super-fast and super-strong. He had attacks that rivaled some of the heaviest hitters in the game, and his speed was unmatched for many of the games. He took some precise controls to truly master, but if you took the time to do so, he was a major force to be reckoned with. I enjoyed his ability to quickly dash out of harms way, only to run back in with a flying knee. And the sweet sweet fastisfaction of actually landing a Falcon Punch? Simple bliss. He’s not my first go-to character, but he deserves the first spot in my Top 5.

Number 4: Sonic the Hedgehog

My family was a Nintendo family growing up. We had Game Boys and Super Nintendos. Of course, I do still have the game gear I had as a child, but the Sonic games were always the game of choice if I visited a friend with a Genesis. So when Sonic was announced as a character is Super Smash Bros Brawl, I knew I would have to take him for a spin. And wouldn’t you know, he fit my playstyle just right. Dashing in, dealing damage, and dodging attacks. He was unique to the rest of the characters, and my only gripe was that he only appeared in the storymode at the very end. But on my first play through of the game, he dealt the final blow to the end boss, and that was satisfaction enough for me. Final boss, I guess you were just too slow!

Number 3: Luigi

The eternal second-tier Mario Bros is first-tier in my heart. Luigi was so strange. He floated through the air, and his moves never went very far. But if you in close, Luigi packed a mighty punch. His drop kick, jab, and smash attacks were all very powerful. He may not hit often, but when he does he hits very hard. And let’s not forget the Super Luigi Uppercut. The sound it makes when it connects still rings true in my ears. While he may not be the first in everyone’s eyes, he’s certainly the character I love to pick up and SMASH the competition with.

Number 2: Meta Knight

Now, I have to be specific here. It’s not just any Meta Knight that gets my heart all aflutter. It’s the Green alternate outfit. Why you ask? Because to me, he looks like Dr. Doom. And thus, whenever I smash someone off screen, I can yell out “KNEEL BEFORE DOOM!” and feel that much better about myself. I mean, who wouldn’t love to just smash face with Dr. Doom all day long? While Meta Knight is certainly not my best character, as I still haven’t gotten all the tricks of the trade down, I am currently undefeated whenever I pick the Dr. Doom colors. That being said, you probably could still kick my butt if you ever challeneged me. But even if you did, I’d have a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Because nobody beats Dr. Doom. I just let you win!

Number 1: Dr. Mario

The Doctor…is in! And no, this has absolutely nothing to do with my obsession with Doctor Who. I swear! I loved Dr. Mario before he was ever IN Smash Bros, and when he was a character in Melee I played him constantly. I think what makes him my most favorite is the fact that he wasn’t in Brawl, and thus my time with him was limited to Melee. We always want what we can’t have, as they say. Dr. Mario was a little slower than regular Mario, and didn’t have quite the distance with his attacks. But he packed a powerful punch. Plus spamming pills is one of the funnest things you can do in the game. The noise it makes…THE NOISE! Dr. Mario definitely needs to make a come back in Super Smash Bros for WiiU and 3DS. Hell, I’d even pay for a DLC that included him…and that’s not something I say very often! BRING BACK DR. MARIO, NINTENDO! OR ELSE!

Well, there you hvae it. My top 5 Smash Bros character, with an honorable mention. Stay tuned for more great updates here on anirage.com, and keep a look out, soon I’ll compile my list of characters that I’d love to see in this upcoming, and future, Smash Bros installments!

Hey Guys! It’s that time again, where I go into my massive stack of games that I have yet to touch. Thank you steam sales. And review some awesome titles! Today I will be reviewing two games that have released this year and have already beaten, Dead Island and Deus Ex: Human Revolution!

Dead Island was one of those games I saw the release trailer for at E3 and immediately got excited, a first person zombie romp kill fest through a island where you have got to survive?! Sign me up! And the months passed and I kept being antsy about it being released and finally.. It was out! So I fired up my rig and prepared for gleeful bliss of running around beating up zombies and being epic. What I got was…Borderlands with zombies.

The game is honestly not that bad.. romping through the island destroying zombies with various weapons you find laying around, healing yourself by eating nothing but fruit and various energy drinks… I swear to god to just restore my health I had to slam down 5 of these energy drinks. And I swore I thought my main character was going to drop from a heart attack! But let’s describe the game in various categories, starting with the weaponry!

You got a little bit of everything to kill with in this game, boat paddles and blunt objects, knives and sharp objects, sledgehammer and impact objects… and then you have various neat little weapons you can make in the game like molotovs, a grenade made out of deodorant cans or a jar of meat that when it explodes on the ground that attracts zombies. Ew. But some of them are kind of cool, like making a electrical machete that shocks zombies when you strike them, or a ripper that is like an electric buzz-saw strapped to a baseball bat that deals damage. I thought the game would have gotten so much easier when I found a pistol or a shotgun, but to my disappointment it was JUST like Borderlands, where even a head shot with a shotgun does not instantly drop the zombie, it takes 2-5 blasts to kill it! And there are various types of zombies that would bring down the hurt on you!

The Story? Same storyline for all of them. You are hanging out at a party one night then it all goes to hell in a hand basket. Zombies, zombies everywhere! The only different bit is the beginning movie and intro to the game. Four characters to chose from (Angry Feminist ex-soldier woman, Ex Hong Kong police woman, Ex Rapper dude, and Ex football guy) all with different abilities, kinda like borderlands.

All in all I did enjoy this game. I had to take it in doses as there were moments of me just flat out quitting the game due to nerd rage from cheap kills by the zombies. But after taking a breather I just had to get back into the game to figure out what happens. If you bought it when it came out brand new, then it was a alright purchase. I am definitely going to wait till it goes on sale to pick it up and add it to my collection, as this is a game I’d like to own, to see the other remaining stories of the other 3 as well as the DLC to it.

For my opinion I give it a 8.5 out of 10 as a good solid zombie romp.

Now some people have never asked for this, but I’m going to give it. Here is my review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I actually have played the first two games of Deus Ex and I did not have much love for the sequel. So when they announced they were going to do a third Deus Ex game I got excited, then freaked out in horror when it was announced that it was going to be ran by the Final Fantasy remaking company Square-Enix.

The story follows Adam Jensen, security op for Sarif Industries, a top augmentation corporation where a suspected security alarm that triggers in the company. Adam gets sent down there and unfortunately gets attacked by a black-op’s team of augmented soldiers and almost dies, but what happens is that Adam survives through the medial technology of augmentation and begins a search to find out who attacked there building and what happened to the workers there in that location.

As it was a prequel to the first game I really wondered how it would size up to sync with the first game, and honestly it did quite well all the way up to the ending. The story gripped me and I found myself staying up late at night to try to go through and beat this game. There are MULTIPLE AND COUNTLESS ways to go through the game, its incredible! Either through stealth, or running and gunning or by hacking into security systems to disable cameras and send security bots back at there own squads, this game was amazing and it had a solid nod to the first game as it is very cyberpunk like with all the locations.

If you have to own a game in your collection and if you loved the Deus Ex Series, please pick this one up as it was quite a enjoyable game. On this one I had to give it 10/10 and there is still DLC being released for it as well! “The Missing Link” comes out in October and I cant wait to see how this mission goes!

In conclusion after I’ve went through these two awesome titles I have been addicted to playing the 1.9 Pre-release version 3 they have out for Minecraft before its 2.0 release, as well as RAGE. I know that it is going to be a one of those games for me to review as iD software has not really released anything in quite a while. As well, I want to review the Batman Arkham series. I’m going to have to run through Arkham Asylum first before tackling Arkham City when that releases.

I have literally grown up playing video games and one of my favorite categories has to be First Person Shooters. I can thank my uncle for that, when I was about 7-8 Years old and he installed Doom and Doom 2 on my Pc I had at my house. Since then I have been addicted to playing FPS Games such as Duke Nukem 3d, The Quake Saga, as well as older never heard of titles like Shadow Warrior and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold.

Now these days I don’t play as much online multiplayer as I used to anymore. I cant really get into playing multiplayer since I got into enjoying MAG and I don’t feel like yelling at a bunch of 12 year olds who think they have 16 inch long egos. But I do tend to like a good FPS story to keep me enthralled while I push on thinking these squad mates are my real life friends, raging when I die and then laughing like a maniac when I get that ultimate weapon in the game to give them Hell for all the times that I was tired at 3 am and I make one STUPID mistake and die like a idiot.

Well, in the upcoming months I plan to review a bunch of games from my own personal collection that I have, what I rent on Gamefly, as well as pick up to own later down the line Like Duke Nukem Forever, La Noire, as well as The Darkness 2. As a spoiler, here are a list of games that I really REALLY wish to review as soon as possible, so expect this to be maybe a daily to weekly bit as my first review will be on that Sleeper FPS Hit – Homefront which I will update later tonight with a synopsis, review, and opinion of this game to save you money or make you go out and buy it!

Till next time! Ok…later tonight after new Doctor Who on BBC America, which would be possibly 9-10pm eastern time.

BTW if I did not express it enough..

NEW DOCTOR WHO ON BBC TONIGHT AT 9PM EASTERN

Happy Easter guys! Don’t eat too many peeps and wait till Monday to reap the sugary benefits when they are on sale…thats what I do.

There are a few things I need to warn you guys about before you settle in to play this awesome game.

1) Prepare to learn a foreign language (or two).
Assassin’s Creed has a wonderful feature called Subtitles. Normally these are distracting letters that appear on the bottom of the screen during cut scenes. However in this game, they turn into a wonderful educational tool! Now you can learn how the correct phrases to say when stabbing people, as well as some key phrases to use when you converse with those whom you don’t agree with. While the majority of these are Italian, so far some French phrases have arrived as well! Who knew killing people could be so educational!

2) Italian is a universal language that everyone years to speak.
While it teaches you some great phrases, the biggest thing is that you’ll discover that deep down, you really ARE Italian. At first you’ll just be reciting lines that you hear from the game, but soon you’ll realize that even in your everyday speech patterns you’ll start emulating your buddy and mine, Ezio. Everything sounds better in a horribly mimicked Italian accent.

3) Your name just got six words longer.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze. It just rolls off the tongue. And jealousy will sit in. Why doesn’t MY name take three paragraphs to state? Soon you will be Joe Wilson de Wisconson con la Madison. It’s only natural.

4) Death follows you.
You’ll never quite figure out why, but people will just drop like flies around you. You’ll look at someone, wave your wrist, and a hail of arrows will appear and strike down your foes…even those you didn’t even know you had a problem with! And people on rooftops? Hell, they’ll start falling left and right. They shouldn’t be up there, looking at you and going “Hey get down from there!”. Serves them right.

5) Daggers. Daggers daggers daggers.
One day you’ll wake up and have them strapped to your wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, tongue, eyelids, ears, hell even places where you normally would want all forms of sharp objects to avoid.

Evening everyone your fellow aniRAGEr Dashi here with a update. Why? Because why not! It’s time for a weekly review of stuff Dashi saw on the internet, as well as stuff he rented through netflix as well as gamefly! So here we go!

The Internets:

Gorillaz Offical Video for Doncamatic: The first time I heard the mp3 I thougt man that female was a good singer! …And then I saw the video, boring, going through the sea, references to the Plastic Beach album, patiently waiting for Rhinestone Eyes. 3.5 out of 5 since I like the song.

Hyperbole and a Half: I thank Vicki for finding me this website, I have never laughed so hard in my life. I think I’m sick again. Dammit.

Lol-Comics: If you have not read these yet, go do so, its a great comic.

Sherlock Holmes: Good movie with Johnny Derp Robert Downey Jr. but felt slightly rushed, hoping for a sequel 4 stars out of five.

Alice in Wonderland: Not too bad but not too terrible a kids movie that felt like it was more for adults. A bit of gore and nastiness but for the adults it was pretty decent,4 stars out of five.

Clash of the titans: I’ve seen both versions and honestly the older version was amazing and was a bit longer but the new version was more of a manly edition, and had a few weird flaws in the story. 3 out of five stars.

And on to the gamefly games ive rented!

Metroid Other M: …felt like a movie more then a metroid game. If I ever play another metroid game again I’m hoping it is as awesome as the games they had on the GBA 2 stars out of five.

Red Dead Redemption : …nope cant seem to get into Sandbox Games at all 2 stars out of five.

Grand theft auto – Liberty city stories : I think I grew so old I couldn’t get into the story lines they had 2 stars out of five.

I was invited by a friend to come to a local comic book shop and play in a small tournament that they host there. I’ve never played before, so I went over to his house, this afternoon, to learn how to play and to pick out a team. I’d like to say that I was a natural pro at it and I ended up winning and the angels came down from heaven and trumpeted me with praise, money, and delicious caramel-heath ice cream. While none of these happened, I actually faired pretty good and ended up with a score (which, I honestly thought I was going to not end up with). So, shall I become the next clix master? Probably not… But, I don’t think I’ll mind playing it again. Till then, though, I’ll be off… -dashes away, Freakazoid style.-

A couple years ago, due to the fact that I talked to a lot of Magic judges online, I was introduced to a format called Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH for short. I’ve always been a fan of variant formats, especially highlander formats. So this definitely peaked my interested.

The rules are simple, and you can read more about it at http://www.dragonhighlander.net/ . But it boils down to this:

Chose a legendary creature as your “general”.

Build a 99-card highlander deck. No card in your deck may include mana costs not related to your general. For example, if your general is Rith, the Awakener, you can play Llanowar Elf, Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshare, but not Dark Blast, Brainstorm, or multi color cards like Absorb. This includes hybrid cards, and also on-color cards that have off-color activation abilities, such as Votary of the Conclave (a white creature with an ability requiring green mana).

Fairly simple, no? As far as rules for playing your decks…

Your general starts out in the “command zone”. You may play your general anytime you could normally cast him from your hand.

If your general would go to the graveyard, or get removed from the game (or “exiled”), you can return him to the command zone.

Every time you cast your general from the command zone, you must pay an additional 2 mana. So 0 mana the first time, 2 the next, 4 the time after that, etc.

You begin the game with 40 life.

If any one general deals 21 damage to you, you lose the game. Life gain does not counteract this.

Some people at the card shop I frequent have begun playing it, so I’ve finally gotten a chance to throw a deck together. Granted, I don’t have the card pool I used to, so my deck isn’t nearly as good as I want it to be, but it’s fun. So far I’ve used Teneb the Harvester, and Rafiq of the Many.

So now you know, anytime you are at an event with aniRAGE, pull out your magic decks and start cardslinging!